Jeff Bleich

Board of Governors Member since 2020

Jeff Bleich is the International Special Envoy for Anthropic. He is also the Chair of the Jeff Bleich Centre on Democracy and Disruptive Technologies at Flinders University. Jeff previously served in other legal, technology, and policy jobs including as special counsel to President Obama in the White House, and as the 24th U.S. Ambassador to Australia.

Jeff received his B.A. in political science at Amherst College, his Masters in Public Policy from Harvard, and his J.D. from the UC Berkeley School of Law where he served as editor-in-chief of the California Law Review. He clerked for Judge Abner Mikva on the D.C. Circuit and Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist on the U.S. Supreme Court, before clerking at the international tribunal in the Hague.

Jeff was a partner at Munger, Tolles & Olson in San Francisco, where he handled many significant pro bono civil rights matters, and was recognized as one of the nation’s top lawyers. He has also served as a Special Master and a mediator for the U.S. Courts, a Partner at Dentons, the General Counsel of Anthropic, and the Chief Legal Officer of Cruise. He holds, or has held, several other leadership positions, including chair of the boards of PG&E Co. and Nuix Pty Ltd., chair of the Fulbright Board, chair of the California State University Board of Trustees, trustee of Amherst College, president of the California State Bar, president of the Bar Association of San Francisco and president of the Barristers Club of San Francisco. He’s served by Presidential appointment in three administrations. In 1998, President Clinton appointed him to serve as director of the White House Commission on Youth Violence following the tragic Columbine shootings.

In recognition of his service, Jeff has received some of the nation’s top honors, including the highest awards for a non-career ambassador by the U.S. State Department, the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Director of National Intelligence. In 2009, the City of San Francisco named a day in his honor. Jeff holds honorary degrees from San Francisco State University, Griffith University, and Flinders University, and received the Haas Medal for Distinguished Public Service from the University of California at Berkeley.